Southwest Social Studies Newsletter

Transcription

1 SIATech Inc. Southwest Social Studies Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 2 September 30, 2011 Arizona and New Mexico There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with American Bill Clinton Upcoming Events: NMHSCE Testing September 26 to October 14 Arizona AIMS Testing October 25 Writing October 26 Reading October 27 Math NMHSCE Testing January 9 thru 27 Southwest Social Studies Teacher Workshop January 26 & Featuring Gary Smith, ELL Specialist for SIATech. Planning has begun and this is a call for ideas for the meeting. What projects do you want to work on? Please let me know, this is our meeting and we want it to be as productive as possible. Bell Work Suggestions: For October On the 11th Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission launched. This is a great opportunity to speak about the U.S. Space Program, NASA and the various missions that led to landing on the moon in On the 16th China denoted their first atomic bomb. Topics such as the growth of nuclear weapons worldwide, nuclear non-proliferation and treaties, SALT, SALT II and the impact of nuclear weapons and nuclear power in the world. On the 24th the United Nations (UN) charter took effect in Discussion could center around the role of the UN and its role and function in the world today. Especially, many of our students have come from countries with political asylum with the help of the UN. Lastly we can look at the 29th of 1929, Black Tuesday as it is lovely referred to by many in the financial and banking industries. This is very topical today since we are in the midst of economic turmoil around the world and even here in the United States. Interview with David McCullough The Cuban Missile Crisis On the evening of October 22, 1962 President John F. Kennedy announced, to the nation the decision to impose an air and naval blockade on Cuba. The President made this decision based on U.S. intelligence reports that had shown that the Soviet Union had shipped to Cuba material used in the building of missile bases capable of carrying (Continued on page 3) A recent interview with David McCullough, the noted historian and author, in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye because I have enjoyed his books over the years and I have admired him. One of the tag lines in bold lettering stated, Textbooks have become 'so politically correct as to be comic.' Meanwhile, the likes of Thomas Edison get little attention. I have often been appalled at what I have seen in textbooks so I read on. The opening line of the first paragraph is, 'We're raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate." He goes on to explain how students, even at the best universities in the country do not know very much about history. To demonstrate his point he talks about the results of the National Assessment of (Continued on page 2)

2 Page 2 Southwest Social Studies Newsletter Dave McCullough (continued) Did you Know There are only two ways to become a U.S. citizen: either by law, or by birth. If you are a citizen by birth, no action on your part is generally required (for example, if you were born in a state or territory of the United States), unless you were born to a U.S. citizen parent overseas, and your birth was not recorded as a U.S. citizen birth at a U.S. consulate overseas. If you are not, then you will probably seek to become one by naturalization, an administrative process that requires you to take some action and which is strictly governed by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). United Nations NYC (Continued from page 1) Educational Progress that had been released by the U.S. Department of Education. The results showed that only 12% of high school seniors had a good understanding of United States history. He further narrows it down stating that only 2% of those students understand the significance of Brown v. Board of Education. He gives an example of a meeting he had with a student at a major university in the mid-west several years ago. The student approached him and thanked him for coming, especially as she admitted, "Until I heard your talk this morning, I never realized the original 13 colonies were all on the East Coast." Understandably he was shocked as he thought to himself, 'What have we been doing so wrong that this obviously bright young woman could get this far and not know that? His answer is that we have been teaching history poorly and we have to change our ways. He believes part of the problem is that people who graduate college with a teaching degree cannot teach effectively because they know little or nothing about the subject they are teaching. He believes that for one to teach effectively he/she must love the subject that they are teaching. He also believes that the method of teaching is all wrong. History is often taught in categories-women s history, African American history, environmental historyso that many of the students have no sense of chronology. They have no idea what followed what. He also believes that the focus on minor characters in history that are fashionable are given too much space because of political correctness and that not enough time or attention is given to people of major consequence. Additionally, he believes that textbooks are written poorly and because of this are boring. Mr. McCullough recognizes that good history, that is written by historians who write for regular people, and not just for historians is critical. He remains upbeat about the future even though he blames the adults in children's lives for not making history come alive, but he does believe this can be corrected. Parents and grandparents of the current and future generation must talk about history, talk about the books they love such as biographies and histories. Children should be exposed to historical sites, Gettysburg, the U.S. Capitol and other places of significance. Mr. McCullough suggests that teaches must use the lab technique. Students should be given a problem to work on. He says that history ought to be understood and taught to be considerably more than just politics and the military. He provides some suggestions for problems to be worked on. He also has a suggestion for how a textbook could be used to gain understanding. As teaches of social studies we seek to improve our skills, and learning from the masters of the profession is a great way to learn and increase the (Continued on page 3)

3 Volume 1, Issue 2 September 30, 2011 Arizona and New Mexico Page 3 (Continued from page 2) opportunities for our students to learn and grow, personally as well as intellectually. I have placed a copy of the full article up on SharePoint. Shared%20Documents/ss%20team%20leader%20newsletter%20resources/ Interview_David_McCullough[1].doc (Continued from page 1) nuclear warheads to positions in the Western Hemisphere.. This crisis was the most intense direct confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War period and brought the world close to the brink of nuclear war. The astute handling of the crisis by President Kennedy solidified his mark on history as one of the great U.S. presidents. It also sent a message to the Soviet Union and to world leaders that the young president was up to the task as leader of the free world. There are many thoughts on why the Soviet Union and Nikita Khrushchev its Premier made such a bold attempt, at intimidation of President Kennedy. Ultimately, Khrushchev s move backfired. Discussion of this event is necessary since our curriculum does not really address the Cold War directly. The events of this period shaped foreign policy during the later part of the 20 th century, and having knowledge of this crisis will benefit students in understanding the conflicts and changes that are happening in the world now in the 21 st century. The 1960 s were a transformational decade, socially, economically, politically and militarily. If you want to prepare a lesson on this topic, you can have students read a summary of it on Thinkquest at: Students can also look at a news report for October 22 nd by going to: general/onthisday/big/1022.html#article. The goal of the lesson could be: What role did the Cuban Missile Crisis play in the softening of policy by the Soviet Union in the 1960 s? Questions to ask: President Kennedy chooses to act without the approval of the United Nations or U.S. allies. Why was this act courageous? President Kennedy chooses to call for a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS). Why is this significant? President Kennedy said, Fidel Castro, Cuban leader, was a pawn of the Soviet Union. What does he mean by this? Do you think he was a pawn? This confrontation brought the world close to nuclear war. Do you think this event led nations to seek the eventual nuclear non-proliferation treaty? The ending of the Cuban Missile crisis saw the United States and the Soviet Union install the hotline (a direct connection telephone between the two countries). What was the impact of this cooperation? (Continued on page 4)

4 Volume 1, Issue 2 September 30, 2011 Arizona and New Mexico Page 4 (Continued from page 3) Nikita Khrushchev, lost face and eventually lost power. The new Soviet leadership began to take a more conciliatory approach toward the United States. Why did this lead to the easing of restrictions in the Soviet block countries, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the fall of Communism? Vocabulary Terms: Blockade Cold War non-proliferation pawn provocative resolution retaliation Western Hemisphere Scholastic.com Immigration Chart Here is a good source that we can use with our students to discuss immigration into the United States. It is a chart that shows the number of immigrants by year and by decade beginning in 1820 and going through It is valuable because it allows you to discuss the ebbs and flows of immigration throughout U.S. history and to show how national and world events affect the number of immigrants who come to the United States. For example immigration began to increase in 1880 and continued very strongly up until 1915 when the inflow dropped approximately 75% because of World War I in Europe. Another example is the Great Depression, between 1930 and 1931 immigration dropped more than 60% and continued on a downward trend throughout the 1930 s and into the 1940 s when World War II occurred. As the numbers show immigration does not begin to rise until These statistics offer many opportunities to pose questions and create assignments that develop critical thinking since they allow you, and the student to make connections between immigration and national and world events. I found this in the same area as the Ellis Island Tour. I use it to discuss how immigration and the countries immigrants come from have changed since the 19 th and early 20 th century. This chart can be found at: Another chart that I have used with my students when analyzing the changes within immigration is right on the same page in Scholastic.com and that gives you the number of immigrants by country, by decade beginning in (Continued on page 5)

5 Volume 1, Issue 2 September 30, 2011 Arizona and New Mexico Page 5 (Continued from page 4) 1820 and it to takes you through This is quite useful to show how immigration to the United States was predominantly from Europe in the 19 th and early 20 th century. It has changed dramatically to whereby today, immigrants come mostly from Asia, Africa, Central and North America but not Europe, except for those who are still coming from the Eastern European countries (the former Eastern Bloc), as remnants of the fall of communism. This of course includes the Middle Eastern nations that have experienced war for the last 40 years. This chart can be found at: Both of these charts provide wonderful visuals to show, in concrete terms what is meant by connections to national and world events by immigration. There are many directions you can go to introduce various topics, historical, social and political to students. Additionally, these charts are good for international students as well. It opens the door for them to talk much more about their countries and to share their experiences in coming to the United States. I find that when international students speak about their experiences it helps them to improve their English language skills. It also brings alive the comparison between today s immigrants and the immigrants who came through Ellis Island. I have put both of these sites up into my Angel in the Additional Resources folder in the U.S. History module. The main site for this section in Scholastic, Who Lives in America: is: No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent. Susan B. Anthony